School History

Introduction

Quintin Kynaston School is the direct descendant of the Polytechnic Day Boys' School founded in 1886 by Quintin Hogg at London's Regent Street. Six years later it was split into separate commercial and technical schools but re-united in 1919 when Percy Abbott became Headmaster. His successor, Bernard Worsnop, oversaw wartime evacuation, the return to London in 1944, gaining grammar status four years later as The Quintin School and the building of a new school in St John's Wood to end a dozen years of 'temporary' accommodation. Paddington Secondary Technical School, which dates back to the 1920s, moved into new buildings next door to become Kynaston Technical School. In 1969 the two schools merged to form a boys' comprehensive Quintin Kynaston School and in 1976 Peter Mitchell admitted girls for the first time. The school gained specialist Technology College status in 2001 under the headship of Nick Kemp.

• From a reading lesson to a Day School (1845-1886, parts 1-6)
• The first ever school journey and other novelties (1888, parts 7-8)
• Schism, death of the Founder but a taller Poly (1892-1911, parts 9-11)
• A pair of Poly schools share a single site (1888-1918, parts 12-14)
• Abbott's academic achievements (1919-1939, parts 15-18)
• Oh, we do like to be beside the seaside! (1939-1945, parts 19-21)
• Brand new buildings after years of dispersal (1945-1969, parts 22-25)
• Merger, a pioneering educationalist... and girls! (1969-1983, parts 26-29)
• Sudden evacuation, crisis and recovery (1986-2001, parts 30-34)

Pre-1956 pages are based largely on a monograph written by Mr L C B Seaman to mark the move to St John's Wood. At the time, Lewis was senior history master at Quintin having been a pupil at the Poly school in the 1920s. Quoted passages are from the weekly Polytechnic Magazine and the Quintinian, the school magazine published at the end of each term. Interviews with ex-pupils, whose memories stretched back as far as Quintin Hogg, also date from 1956. We are indebted to alumni, parents, staff and others for contributions to our subsequent history and would like to have more. If you have any information about events or personalities which we might use, please e-mail us. If this is pre-merger, please remember to tell us which school.

About our name

From its earliest days there was some uncertainly about the school's name. Launched in November 1885 as The Polytechnic Middle Class School, by June 1887 it was known formally as The Polytechnic Intermediate Day School but often just called The Polytechnic Boys' Day School (or minor variants). Some time after 1919 it used the name St Marylebone Polytechnic Secondary School but later dropped the St Marylebone. On gaining grammar status in 1948 it became The Quintin School. Until 1956, Kynaston Technical School was the Paddington Secondary Technical School. We became Quintin Kynaston School in 1969.